


The Sparkle in Her Eye

by heroami



Series: Missing Moments [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Compliant, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Space fam - Freeform, Space family, Team Bonding, excited Pidge is adorable, set during/after Space Mall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-29
Updated: 2018-01-29
Packaged: 2019-03-11 01:16:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13513719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heroami/pseuds/heroami
Summary: When was the last time Allura left the Castle for a non-mission reason? The Balmera? That was forever ago. No wonder she was so disappointed. And to think, all she wanted was something sparkly.Lance paused as an idea began to form in his head. It was high risk, but could lead to high reward.





	The Sparkle in Her Eye

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry Dreamworks, you can't convince me that Lance didn't at least try to get something for Allura while they were at the space mall.

Lance hissed in frustration as he felt his carefully rolled jeans slip down his leg. He glared at the offending fabric as it dipped into the frigid water of the fountain and immediately darkened.

“Oh, come on,” he whined, flicking his hands dry the best he could so he could cuff them again. Predictably, the denim was thoroughly soaked and had taken on that weird, rough texture. There was no way this was going to dry anytime soon. “Perfect. _Just_ perfect.”

He heard Pidge snort on the other side of the fountain. “Sucks to suck.”

“Wet jeans, Pidge! Wet jeans!”

“Don’t think about it, Lance.”

“It’s kinda hard to ignore! And now it’s got that weird chlorine smell that’s going to take ages to get rid of.”   

Pidge sighed, straightening up from her crouched position and examining the handful of GAC she had collected. “Then think about this instead,” she countered, not even glancing at him as she counted the coins. “Once we get out of here, you can spend the rest of the day in your favorite Altean pjs while playing video games.” She stuffed the money into her already bulging pocket and shot him a smile on the cusp of being bittersweet. “There’s nothing more Earth-like than that.”

Lance gave her a flat look, even as her words pulled on his heartstrings. “Now you’re just playing dirty,” he accused.  

Her smile slipped into something a bit more playful. “I _really_ want that game system.”

He stared at her for another moment, before shrugging and getting back to work. If getting the video game makes Pidge happy, then he could endure the torture of wet jeans for a bit longer.

It was mind numbing work, honestly, wading through the fountain, scouring for coins with the only source of entertainment being Pidge’s ramblings about the Mercury Gameflux II. She explained how it was supposedly different from the previous systems and gave her take on the pros and cons she had gathered from online reviews. Then she gave him a crash course on the Killbot Phantasm series plotline and it’s ‘awesome’ retro style.

“It looks like its straight out of the 1990s,” she gushed. “They just don’t make games like that anymore.”

Now, Lance wasn’t much of a gamer – it’s hard to be when you have to share a single system with five older siblings – so he couldn’t contribute much more than the occasional hum and other vaguely interested noises. But he let her go on and on anyway. What could he say? Excited Pidge was adorable.   

He idly wondered if Allura was just as adorable when _she_ got excited.

She had seemed so enthusiastic when the idea of going to the swap meet was brought up. It physically pained him to see her practically droop when Coran insisted she stay in the Castle. At the time, Coran seemed to have a point: a swap meet would be dangerous for a princess – especially one on the Galras’ top ten most wanted list – and she needed to rest. Though Lance was sure she would never admit it, she was expending a lot of energy with each unstable wormhole jump they had been making lately. He could see the exhaustion in the tension of her shoulders and the subtle darkness under her eyes. She didn’t need the stress of a potentially dangerous situation on top of all that.

But now that they were here, Lance was wondering if that decision was a mistake. He looked up, eyes sweeping across the brightly lit lobby, letting the vibrant colors in the shop windows, the gentle music from the hall speakers and the faint roar of conversation wash over him. This was a mall. More than that, it was the space equivalent a white suburban mall. You couldn’t get more safe than that, right? Besides, when was the last time Allura left the Castle for a non-mission reason? The Balmera? That was forever ago. No wonder she was so disappointed. And to think, all she wanted was something sparkly.

Lance paused as an idea began to form in his head. It was high risk, but could lead to high reward.

He glanced at Pidge out of the corner of his eye, and sure enough, she was still rambling about the tech behind Gameflux with her back turned to him.

It was now or never.

He coolly made his way over to the edge of the fountain, where his jacket rested, trying to be mindful of his splashing. A quick look over his shoulder confirmed that Pidge was still distracted, so he reached forward and shoved a handful of GAC into his jacket pocket.

Hopefully it would be enough.

“Oh!” He tensed when he heard Pidge cry out behind him. Quiznak, had he been caught? He quickly shoved his hands back into the water, deciding to play it cool, even if he had been caught red-handed. “This tenner looks like it’s the last one!” A quick look down confirmed that, his fingers brushing the cool tile at the bottom of the fountain with not a coin in sight.

Pidge turned to him, storing the last coin with the others. “So, how much have we got?”

Lance straightened, eyeing her carefully. It looks like he was in the clear. “You said you had like 600? And I have,” Lance paused for a moment, quickly subtracting the fifty GAC he had just tucked into his jacket. “Yeah, okay. Eleven hundred and ninety-six GAC.”

Pidge’s face pinched in determination. “We’re so close!” Thankfully, before Lance could feel guilty about essentially stealing the remaining money from Pidge, she jumped up, pointing over his shoulder. “Lance, look!”

A kid was approaching the fountain, a silver 5 cent GAC piece held firmly between his pink fingers. As he got closer, he raised his hand, clearly prepared to throw the coin into the water.  

“Already on it!” Lance cried, darting through the water. However, the water was causing too much resistance, so he decided just to dive for it.

Okay, so maybe catching it in his mouth wasn’t the most effective way of getting the coin, but hey, it worked, didn’t it? And a little flair never hurt anyone.

He landed back in the fountain with an impressive splash. He pushed himself into a sitting position, spitting the coin and water out of his mouth. Pidge was there seconds later, offering him a hand up.

“Was that really necessary?” She asked, grinning widely.

Lance shot her an incredulous look. “Um, absolutely.” She laughed out right as she pulled him up.

“We have everything we need,” she said, heading over to the edge of the fountain and clambering out. She grabbed her shoes and his jacket, shoving it into his hands impatiently as he climbed out as well. “Let’s go!”

If she heard the clinking of the GAC in the jacket, she didn’t show it, darting away as soon as he grabbed it. By the time he collected his shoes, she was already at the escalator.

“Lance, come _on!_ ” she urged, bouncing impatiently on the balls of her feet.

Lance tossed a distracted ‘thanks’ to the kid at the fountain as he ran after her. He was about halfway to the escalator when he realized he was now soaked to the bone.

Man, Pidge was lucky she was cute.

~~~~~~

The owner of the Earth-themed store stared blankly down at the frankly frightening pile of coins sitting next to the register and Lance couldn’t help wincing in sympathy. He’d worked in retail before and knew very well that there was nothing worse than tenner that was mostly change.

Pidge paid it no mind, standing next to the pile proudly, clutching the Gameflux II to her chest, a pleased grin stretched across her face. “I’d like this, please.”

Lance snorted as the alien glanced between her, the console, and the pile, before sighing and beginning to count.

“Looks like this is going to take a while,” Lance said, watching as the store owner dragged each individual coin from the pile. “I’m going to go see what else they got.” Pidge made a distracted noise, which he took as consent.

Stepping away, Lance surveyed the shop quickly. It was a pretty small store, compared to some of the other places they had passed, but it had a pretty good selection.

 _Though maybe a bit outdated,_ he mused as he passed a shelf of smartphones that were probably older than his grandparents. _Who’s even heard of Samsung?_

Either way, he could work with this. And if all else fails, he could barter for that floating cow statue behind the counter. Cows were cute, right? And what girl didn’t love cute things?

But sparkly was the goal here.

He tried not to make a beeline for the jewelry, but it was a near thing. Who knew how much time he had? Plus, he couldn’t let Pidge know that he took some of the GAC. For all he knew, she would get upset at him for holding out on her, even if she did get enough for the console in the end. Or worse, she would pressure him to buy another game, and considering he had already soaked his jeans in highly chlorinated water to make her happy, he can’t imagine it would take much for him to cave again. Or worse still, she would tease him endlessly about it. She and Hunk had already caught on to crush on the Princess and he would rather not give them anymore ammunition.

He examined the surprisingly diverse selection of necklaces and bracelets carefully, looking for anything that screamed ‘Allura’. But the more he looked, the more disheartened he felt. Most of the items looked pretty cheap, like something his sisters would buy at one of those stores teenage girls always flocked to. Not really the kind of stuff that you would give to a princess who probably had pinky rings worth more than his house. But he would have to make do.

He was gently fishing through some gaudy looking gold necklaces hanging on a small rotating display when a flash of blue caught his eye. Turning the display completely, he found a rather simple silver chain with a butterfly hanging on the end. He picked up the pendent to give is a closer look. It was connected to the chain by the tip of its wing, which was made of what looked like a light blue gem. The other three wings, however, were made out of smaller gems inlaid in silver metal. They were arranged in a cool ombre pattern, gradually going from white along the edges of the wings to the same delicate shade of blue of the accent wing the closer they got to the center.

Lance considered the necklace. It was pretty, despite having the same cheap look that everything else had. It was sparkly, which was what Allura had wanted. Plus, it was blue. It matched the color of Allura’s eyes and if the color was also closely associated with him too, well, you know.

Smiling, he carefully removed the chain from the display and checked the price. Forty-five GAC. Perfect.

He curled his hand around the necklace protectively, making sure it was hidden from view, and headed back up to the front, where the alien was finally finishing up counting their change.

“Okay, looks like it’s all here,” the owner said, dragging the last coin across the counter. “It’s all yours.”

Pidge shouted in delight, pulling the box closer to her chest and doing a little happy dance. “Yes! Yes, yes, yes!”

“All done?” Lance asked, unable to stop himself from grinning at her excited wiggling. She rounded on him and pulled him into a tight hug.

“Thank you, Lance! Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“No problem, gremlin,” Lance laughed, ruffling her hair, which caused her to immediately pull back, swatting wildly at his hand. “Now, remind me again, why was the glove so important? It was like, infinite lives or something right?”

That launched the younger paladin into another long-winded explanation of the system. While she was distracted, Lance flashed the necklace in his hand to the shop owner and raised a finger to his lips, shooting a meaningful look towards Pidge. The owner caught on, nodding and reaching for something under the counter. Lance fished the money out of his pocket, placing it next to the large pile of coins quietly and accepted a small silvery box to put the necklace in.

With the transaction complete, Lance began to steer the still rambling Pidge towards the exit.

Then, several things happened at once: the shop owner was shoved a rope in his hand, saying something about a free Kaltenecker with every purchase, he felt the hot breath of said Kaltenecker against his face and realized the what he thought was a cow statue before was actually a real, live cow. Then Hunk and Keith were sprinting past them, yelling that it was time to go as a large, angry-looking alien on a scooter came roaring around the corner, shouting something about space pirates.

Shoving the necklace and the box in his pocket, Lance did what he always does best: goes with the flow.     

~~~~~~

Allura sighed unhappily, eyes roving across the star charts as she untangled the braid the mice had given her earlier that day.

She still wasn’t sure if she trusted all this Blade of Marmora nonsense. This was Zarkon they were talking about – it was definitely within the range of possibilities that he would attempt to trick them by lulling them into a false sense of security. And what better way than with the prospect of gaining allies who were on the inside? He and his witch were definitely devious enough to concoct such a plan.

However, Shiro seemed convinced that organization was legitimate, and therefore the others took him at his word.

But Allura wasn’t so easily fooled. Galra were loyal to a fault. They preferred death to the failure of their cause, so a rebellion within the species wasn’t possible. And even if it was, it had been ten thousand years. Why hadn’t they done _anything?_

Allura leaned back against one of her control panels, rubbing her temples while her head positively throbbed. She really should be getting to bed, but she already knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep with worry and mistrust stewing in her chest.

She wasn’t sure how long she sat there, watching their trajectory towards the Blade base, as per the encryption in Shiro’s arm – his Galra arm – when she heard the door behind her whoosh open.

She jumped at the noise, twisting around to see Lance shuffling towards her, looking almost shy. How unusual.

“Hello, Lance,” she greeted as he slowly made his way around her platform. “How are you feeling?” He stopped short a few feet away, blinking at her in confusion. “Your head,” she continued, gesturing to the bandage still taped just below his hairline.

“Oh,” the Blue Paladin said, his hand shooting up to brush over the spot, before he winced and pulled it away. “No, yeah. It’s fine. Just a bruise. No concussion or anything. Coran checked.”

Allura nodded, still eyeing him wearily. Why was he acting so odd, then?

“Is everything okay?” She pressed gently, because as much as he annoyed her with all his flirting, she still considered him a dear friend.

“Everything’s fine,” Lance blurted, before looking away sharply and swearing under his breath.

Allura raised an eyebrow. “Clearly it isn’t.” She gently patted the spot next to her on the platform, which he stiffly settled himself into. She surveyed him for a moment, noting the tell-tale pink flush across his neck and tinging the tips of his ears. Allura fought back a sigh; she had a feeling she knew where this was going. “Now, what is going on?”

He squirmed slightly before sighing heavily, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small silver box. He gently pressed it into her hands.

“I got this for you at the mall,” he explained, sounding resigned. “You seemed so bummed when Coran told you you couldn’t go, so I thought it would cheer you up. But now that I really think about it, it was probably stupid.”

Allura stared down at the box in awe. She didn’t know what she was expecting exactly, but it certainly hadn’t been this.

“You got me a gift?”

“Yeah, pretty stupid of me, huh?”

Allura certainly didn’t think so. Honestly, she couldn’t even remember the last time she had received a gift. At least, one that was chosen with her in mind. Usually the gifts she received were presented to Princess Allura of Altea, which she would accept on behalf of her home planet as a sign of peace or good will. They came from monarchs and diplomats who wanted to showcase their culture, and suitors who wanted to flaunt their wealth and prestige. Though they were given to her, they were never truly _for_ her.          

However, this was specifically picked out for her- not Princess Allura of Altea, _just_ Allura - with her feelings in mind.

Armed with that thought, she carefully opened the box and, letting out a breathy ‘oh’, lifted the necklace up so the gemstones caught the light beautifully.

“I know it’s not much,” she heard Lance say, “And as a princess, you probably have received things way cooler than this, and way more expensive and, you know, _befitting_ or whatever for a princess, but I just thought -.” Allura promptly cut off his rambling by pulling him into a hug.

“Never mind all that,” she chastised, giving him a squeeze. “This is perfect. Thank you for thinking of me.”

She heard Lance sputter for a moment, before he lifted his arms to return the hug.

Resting her chin on his shoulder, Allura looked down at the little blue butterfly still clutched in her hand and smiled. It was true that she had received many things in her lifetime that were borderline priceless; however, the small necklace chosen by her friend in the hopes of cheering her up, after what was frankly a childish outburst, was the greatest gift of all.  

**Author's Note:**

> [check out my tumblr](http://heroami.tumblr.com/)


End file.
